Monday, 23 February 2015

Are you as curious as I am to discover more about Theo Darcy, Fitzwilliam's brother? Theo Darcy is everything his disapproving elder brother, Fitzwilliam, is not – easy-going, charming, and full of fun. A tragic event as children severed their bond of friendship, but now they are together again. They are still at odds, though, this time over the love of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and the truth about George Wickham. Will Wickham manage to divide the brothers again? And more importantly, which Mr. Darcy will Elizabeth choose?

Find out as the two brothers lock horns in this unique Pride & Prejudice variation collectively written by five respected authors: Maria Grace, Abigail Reynolds, Cassandra Grafton, Susan Mason-Milks and Monica Fairview.

Saturday, 21 February 2015

Hello and welcome, Samantha. It's great to have you here at My Jane Austen Book Club. First of all I'll invite you to tell us something about your writing background

I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing, especially fiction. I come from a family of writers. Both of my grand-fathers
wrote nonfiction and my Dad writes both fiction and nonfiction. In grade six, my teacher gave us a
novel-writing project. I wrote a fantasy
story called The Amazing Dollhouse and I’ve been hooked ever since. English was my favourite subject in junior
and senior high and I went on to study journalism and professional writing in
college. I have since self-published
seven books and one picture book.

Why do your write Jane Austen-related fiction?

My sister loved the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice as well as
the Bridge Jones books and movies. For
her birthday, one year, I thought I would write her a short sequel to Pride and
Prejudice. The planned 20 page story
turned into a novel called Expectations and I fell in love with all things Jane
Austen. I loved her books, researching
the time period and watching all of the movie and television adaptations. I was then asked to write a murder mystery
tea for our church and chose to do a Jane Austen murder mystery involving six
characters from different books. This
led to an interest in Jane Fairfax from Emma which turned into Suspiciously
Reserved: A Twist on Jane Austen’s Emma.

Monday, 16 February 2015

Hello dear Austenite friends! I'm really glad and honored to give the start to this great blog tour.

Award winning historical romance author Julie Klassen tours the blogosphere February 16 through March 2 to share her latest release, The Secret of Pembrooke Park. Twenty five popular book bloggers specializing in historical and Austenesque fiction will feature guest blogs, interviews, book reviews and excerpts of this acclaimed gothic Regency romance novel. A fabulous giveaway contest, including copies of all of Ms.Klassen’s eight books and other Jane Austen-themed items, is open to those who join the festivities.

Inspiration for The Secret of Pembrooke Park,

Guest post by Julie Klassen

People often ask me where I find the ideas
for my books. And the answer varies. Most ideas have come from
research—historical practices, professions, or events that spark the idea for a
situation or premise. Some ideas have been inspired by movies I’ve seen, or
books I’ve loved, especially those by Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte. Others
have come from historic places I’ve visited in England—if only I could travel
there more often!

My latest book, The Secret of Pembrooke Park, is about a young woman who moves with
her family into a mysterious manor abandoned for eighteen years. With help from
a handsome neighbor, she searches the house, hoping to find its secret room and
rumored hidden treasure—but finds danger instead. The idea for this setting came from closer to home.

I grew up in rural Central Illinois. We
could only see one house from ours, and that was across a field. (I spent a lot
of time playing alone as a girl, which likely helped develop my imagination.) About
a half mile behind our house was a wood. I liked to walk there, all the while
making up stories in my head. In these woods, I stumbled upon an abandoned
house. The roof and most of the upper story was gone, but three walls still
stood. Through the gaped opening, you could see the entire ground floor, still
furnished. A moldering piano listed in one corner, a tattered blue dress hung
on the wall, a set of stairs lead upwards to nowhere… Behind the house I
discovered a root cellar—a hollowed out mound of earth with stairs leading down
into it. Inside there were still shelves filled with mason jars of home-canned
peaches and vegetables.

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Hi Maria Grazia and thank you so much for inviting
me to share a little bit about myself on your blog. I’ve been writing for
almost forty years, starting when I was just a little girl when I would write
stories about gnomes in little notebooks (which I still have!). I gravitated to
writing about the Amish genre because my heritage is Anabaptist and I find the
Plain culture fascinating.

Unfortunately, there is often a
misconception that Amish fiction books are poorly written and formula romance.
And then there is often a problem concerning many authors’ accuracy of the
portrayal of Amish. Many authors do not have first-hand experience with the
Amish or readers are basing what they know on “reality” shows.

The theme of the contest, “Summer Lovin’,”
represents the summer season. The interpretation of the theme is left to the
writer’s imagination; the story may have summer as a backdrop or may convey a
sense of happiness and light. It might be a romantic comedy set in the South
Pacific, a thriller in the everglades of Florida, a romance in Queen Victoria’s
summer court, an ode to the ocean and Elizabeth Bennet, or a mail -order bride
in the Old West—anything your summer muse suggests.

Any genre is acceptable as long as
there is ROMANCE. Austenesque is a plus, but is not required. In other words,
so long as there is a commonly accepted or acceptable interpretation of the
theme embedded in the plot, it works for us. However, this contest is not for
children’s stories. Our target audience is readers over 18 years old.

The contest will be judged by a
panel ofindependent judges, and the results will be announced by
mid-April 2015.

A long list of entries will be
selected for final judging by a panel of expert editors and reviewers. The long
list will consist of at least eight quality entries. All entries
on the long list will receive a letter with constructive criticism on how the
story could have been improved. Four winners will be selected from the long
list and will be awarded prizes as detailed in the guidelines below (see “Contest
Prizes”).

About Me

I've been an English teacher for a long time now and a blogger for more than 5 years. I love classic literature, reading, theatre, period drama, art and that is what I usually write about on FLY HIGH and My Jane Austen Book Club. I'd love to hear from you! Leave your comments to my posts or send e-mail messages to learnonline.mgs@gmail.com.